Pirate Bay Charged

Your mind may shift towards certain nefarious activities during your lazy Sunday afternoon, if so spare a thought for the Pirate Bay…

The ambitious P2P link site has finally pushed the famously liberal Swedish authorities too far this week and is facing public prosecution for the first time on home soil. Specifically, the charges are aimed at Pirate Bay heads Carl Lundstrom, Peter Sunde, Frederik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg.

Challenged with “preparing and participating in copyright infringement”, the accusation circumvents the Pirate Bay’s long held counter argument that it is merely a search engine and isn’t responsible for the content of other sites and consequently what turns up in its results.

The news also comes two days after a Danish court issued an injunction ordering a major ISP to block its users’ access to The Pirate Bay because of its role in preparing and participating in copyright infringement.

Naturally, the action has instantly won approval with the IFPI, which represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide with its CEO, John Kennedy, drooling: “The operators of The Pirate Bay have always been interested in making money, not music. The Pirate Bay has managed to make Sweden, normally the most law abiding of EU countries, look like a piracy haven with intellectual property laws on a par with Russia. We welcome the filing of these charges in Sweden. The evidence presented by the prosecutor shows that The Pirate Bay, which claims to be motivated by idealism, is really motivated by making money.”

In response, the Pirate Bay has asked its large and dedicated user base to hold off from making any donations to help out. A banner on its website reads: “IMPORTANT: WE DO NOT WANT ANYONE TO DONATE TO ANY SORT OF FUND FOR US. NONE OF THOSE ARE OFFICIAL AND YOU SHOULD NOT GIVE AWAY MONEY. WE WILL NOT NEED FINANCIAL HELP AT THIS TIME BECAUSE THE STATE WILL NEED TO PAY OUR EXPENSES FOR NOW.”

Perhaps sensing the gig could be up, last year the Pirate Bay ambitiously declared its interest in bidding for the tenancy of Sealand – a micronation established on a former British naval platform in the North Sea which was granted its own principality status in September 1967. Sadly, Sealand didn’t want to sell, but given that the tenancy would have required a sum of more than £65,000,000 it was rather a silly idea in the first place.

Still, with donations toward the Sealand purchase now topping $20,000 the Pirate Bay wants to put it towards buying an island instead. I’d suggest even a two metre by two metre plot in the Atlantic may be more attractive than what it faces now…